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General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Pinyin reflects Mandarin pronunciation; for some dialect names, it is no more than a polite fiction. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green LetteringGreen lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

The Motacillidae fall into two visually distinct groups, the wagtails and the pipits, a distinction that is reflected in popular and ornithological naming. Chinese ornithological naming is as follows:

1. Wagtails (including Dendronanthus) are known as 鹡鸰jílíng. The name can also be written 脊令 (the same characters minus the 'bird' radical 鸟). This name has been directly borrowed into Japanese as 鶺鴒sekirei.

2. The pipits are known in ornithological Chinese as 鹨liù, with the variant pronunciation, still recognised in Taiwan, of liào. The word 鹨liù was originally used in Chinese for the larks. For example, 天鹨tiān liù is found in the 18th century Imperial Pentaglot Mirror (37) in the meaning 'lark'. This naming is also reflected in the Japanese reading of 鹨 as ヒバリhibari'lark'.

In Japanese usage, the name ヒバリhibari was extended to other lark-like species such as the 岩鷚イワヒバリiwa-hibari'rock lark' or 'accentor' and the 田鷚タヒバリta-hibari'field lark' or 'pipit'. In a similar vein, the name of the Olive-back Tree Pipit was represented in writing as 木鷚'tree lark' (although this was possibly influenced by Chinese). All these names entered Chinese ornithological usage via the first Chinese-language ornithological list, Chinese Birds of 1927 (35), which from the outset treated the pipits as 鹨liù rather than 田鹨tián-liù 'field-larks'. This began the ornithological Chinese custom of using 鹨liù to refer narrowly to the pipits. As a result, the accentors or 岩鹨 yán-liù in Chinese are technically 'rock pipits' rather than 'rock larks'.

The wagtails have a number of alternative names in Chinese. The significance of the characters used is not totally clear.

This is an old name for black or blackish passerines, probably related to харагчинkharagchiŋ, a word used for black-coloured cows. Харkhar means 'black'. Харагчинkharagchiŋ now usually identified as meaning wagtail but can also be found used for the Chinese Hill Warbler and the Dunnock (Prunellidae. It is also found used as a descriptor for the Crested Myna and the Eurasian Crag Martin.

The word Боролдойboroldoi forms part of the name Боролдой болжморboroldoi boljmor, which refers to the Skylark Alauda arvensis (although in Mongolian ornithological lists it is normally found in the form боролзойborolzoi meaning 'tansy'). The name suggests a similarity or connection between the two types of bird.

The name of the pipits in Japanese, タヒバリta-hibari, literally means 'field-lark'. When written in Chinese characters it is traditionally written as 田雲雀 or as 田鷚. The first character, 田, is the character for タta 'field'. This is followed by 雲雀, literally 'cloud sparrow', or 鷚, which are alternative ways of writing ヒバリhibari 'lark'. However, in Chinese, 鷚 (pronounced liù or in Taiwan liào) itself is understood to mean 'pipit'.

Motacilla alba lugens is sometimes considered a separate species. In Japanese, Motacilla lugens is known as:タイリクハクセキレイ(大陸白鶺鴒)tairiku haku-sekirei
'continental white wagtail'

ビンズイbinzui is an onomatopoeic name based on the bird's call, which sounds like ビンビン ツイツイbin-bin tsui tsui in Japanese. This is arbitrarily written 便追, chosen for its sound (binzui) rather than its meaning (roughly 'convenient pursue' or 'mail pursue'). The alternative form 木鷚'tree lark' is based on the species' (original) Chinese name.